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Why you should not go to medical school

blogs.law.harvard.edu

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Re: Why you should not go to medical school

#31

Post by arn »

tryitnow wrote: post #27
arn wrote: post #4

So, surprisingly, this rant is more or less accurate, imo. (I went to med school, residency, fellowship) I mean some things stronger than others, but it hits on the major negatives as you go through training. I know a lot of these rants tend to romanticize how hard people's own professions are in a "no one else has it this hard" type stance. We see similar "how hard it is to be a programmer" type rants as well. But,…

I sometimes wish I had gone to medical school - now is an amazing time to be in healthcare. Technology has the potential to have a huge impact. Here's the problem: most intelligent driven people are not going to be satisfied with "having a regular job, enjoying life, etc" Sorry, it's just not built into us. Sure, we want those things, but we also want that sense of achievement or of making a valuable contribution to…

I up voted you, because I agree with some of your points. But I don't agree with the rest of it.

There are those, especially who visit this site, who are smart, have a lot of motivation, and want to do something great. Enterpreneurship is a hard life as well. Running a startup will suck much your life as much as residency or medical school might.

As you say though the key to health is not losing sight of the "regular things". The problem with medical school and residency is that you have little control over that. You will lose sight of the regular things. You won't be enjoying your life. And here's the big catch... you won't be changing the world, either. Being a doctor is not glamorous, if you think it is, re-read the rant because he touches on much of it.

And, very few people have an actual "passion" for medicine. I don't think I've met one person. Someone who would be doing medicine even if they didn't have to. Maybe your startup won't change the world either, but at least you might have a personal passion for it or the process.

My point is that for those with regular lives who wish they went to medical school... What's the reason? Read the rant. It's the wrong reason. (he even spells out that there is only one good reason to go into medicine)

Re: Why you should not go to medical school

#33

Post by techiferous »

chime wrote: post #2

One could say the same for any given field from sports to programming to business to pet-sitting. It's a hard knock life for us all. None of these reasons should have stopped any decent doctor from taking the path. The single reason would be: Don't go into medical school if you care more about money and an easy-going life than the actual field and people involved. And the same applies to every single field.

"One could say the same for any given field"

Nah, it varies a lot. The nature of the work itself is different among various jobs and economic forces also create inequalities in working conditions in various industries.

I've been a programmer and a teacher. I've found being a programmer to be easy, and being a teacher to be difficult (but not as difficult as what was described in this blog post).

Re: Why you should not go to medical school

#34

Post by arn »

niels_olson wrote: post #29
arn wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the sort of thing you aren't fully aware of while you are in it. After I quit practicing, it really felt like an enormous weight had been lifted. Just due to the responsibilities involved. People ask me if I miss it. I do not. That said, I don't want to make it sound like it was terrible. There was a fair amount of job satisfaction and rewards as well, like most things, and at the time I felt like I enjoyed it.

arn, thanks for sharing, truly. I'm a general medical officer in the Navy (Navy still puts docs to work after internship, applying for residency later. The work is mainly fast-track or urgent care style triaging and treating). I'm currently facing the choice of extending my current tour a year then going back to residency or taking a another two-year tour with the Marines and going to Afghanistan. I'm married with ki…

Fellowship in nephrology. Now in Virginia. Financially, it became an easy decision. I was making enough that I didn't have to keep working in medicine. Beyond that, I had my first child around that time, and didn't want to lose that time.

Feel free to email me if you have any further questions (email in profile).

Re: Why you should not go to medical school

#35

Post by skrebbel »

learc83 wrote: post #32
skrebbel wrote: post #25

wait, so, in the US a programmer earns double what a doctor earns?

No, not at all the average doctor's salary is more than twice the average programmers salary.

The article lists $45,000 per year for doctors. Programmer polls on HN showed that $100,000 is little.

What am I missing? :-)

Re: Why you should not go to medical school

#36

Post by niels_olson »

arn wrote: post #34
niels_olson wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

arn, thanks for sharing, truly. I'm a general medical officer in the Navy (Navy still puts docs to work after internship, applying for residency later. The work is mainly fast-track or urgent care style triaging and treating). I'm currently facing the choice of extending my current tour a year then going back to residency or taking a another two-year tour with the Marines and going to Afghanistan. I'm married with ki…

Fellowship in nephrology. Now in Virginia. Financially, it became an easy decision. I was making enough that I didn't have to keep working in medicine. Beyond that, I had my first child around that time, and didn't want to lose that time. Feel free to email me if you have any further questions (email in profile).

thanks.

Re: Why you should not go to medical school

#37

Post by zwischenzug »

skrebbel wrote: post #35
learc83 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, not at all the average doctor's salary is more than twice the average programmers salary.

The article lists $45,000 per year for doctors. Programmer polls on HN showed that $100,000 is little. What am I missing? :-)

HN readers are not average programmers and are not likely to be junior.

Or people lie.

Re: Why you should not go to medical school

#38

Post by inportb »

skrebbel wrote: post #35
learc83 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, not at all the average doctor's salary is more than twice the average programmers salary.

The article lists $45,000 per year for doctors. Programmer polls on HN showed that $100,000 is little. What am I missing? :-)

I understand that $45k is about average for residents. Fellows make a bit more, and so on.

Then, if you think of work as the process of converting time/life into money, I'd say private practice is a bit more efficient than hospital work. Because you work for yourself, you get to extract as much life as you want in exchange for money. I suppose it is very similar for entrepreneurs.

Re: Why you should not go to medical school

#39

Post by tsotha »

skrebbel wrote: post #35
learc83 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, not at all the average doctor's salary is more than twice the average programmers salary.

The article lists $45,000 per year for doctors. Programmer polls on HN showed that $100,000 is little. What am I missing? :-)

$45/year for residents. At that point you're still basically an apprentice doctor.

Re: Why you should not go to medical school

#40

Post by Confusion »

There is not a doubt in my mind that this schedule ensures that they learn less and perform their jobs in much worse ways than compared to when they would be able to get more sleep and less stress. There's zounds of experiments that back me up on this.

As far people saying it's cheap labor: when residents make mistakes and the hospital gets sued, the labor suddenly isn't so cheap anymore. Again, there is not a doubt in my mind that this practice leads to a lot of damage and death, with the associated financial fallout.

That hospital management doesn't try to change this shows how blind they are to the consequences of entrenched practices. I wonder whether the health care market could be disrupted merely by creating hospitals that actually try to get their employees to perform optimally.

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